Lipopolysaccharide-pretreated mesenchymal stem cell-conditioned medium optimized with 10 kDa filter attenuates the injury of H9c2 cardiomyocytes in a model of hypoxia/reoxygenation.

Mesenchymal stem cell-derived conditioned medium (MSC-CM) improves cardiac function, which is partly attributed to the released paracrine factors. Since such cardioprotection is moderate and transient, it is essential that MSC-CM's effective components are optimized to alleviate myocardial injury. To optimize MSC-CM, MSCs were treated with or without lipopolysaccharides (LPSs) for 48 h (serum-free), and the supernatant was collected.

Intra-individual comparison of therapeutic responses to vascular disrupting agent CA4P between rodent primary and secondary liver cancers.

Aim: To compare therapeutic responses of a vascular-disrupting-agent, combretastatin-A4-phosphate (CA4P), among hepatocellular carcinomas (HCCs) and implanted rhabdomyosarcoma (R1) in the same rats by magnetic-resonance-imaging (MRI), microangiography and histopathology.

Methods: Thirty-six HCCs were created by diethylnitrosamine gavage in 14 rats that were also intrahepatically implanted with one R1 per rat as monitored by T2-/T1-weighted images (T2WI/T1WI) on a 3.0T clinical MRI-scanner.

[Spatial-temporal pattern and factor diagnoses of agroecosystem health in major grain producing areas of Northeast China: A case study in Jilin Province].

It is of great significance to study agroecosystem health in major grain producing areas based on the theory and method of ecosystem health. This paper selected Jilin Province as the study area, and an evaluation index system of agroecosystem health was built based on the SSI-VOR conceptual framework model. Using the optimal combined weights method, comprehensive evaluation assessment, GIS spatial analysis and grey slope similarity incidence models, the spatial-temporal pattern of agroecosystem health and influence factors were analyzed from 2000 to 2011 in Jilin Pro-vince.

Differential diagnosis of gallstones by using hypericin as a fluorescent optical imaging agent.

Aim: To explore the feasibility of using hypericin as an optical imaging probe with affinity for cholesterol for differential fluorescent detection of human gallstones.

Methods: Cholesterol, mixed and pigment stones from cholecystectomy patients were incubated with hypericin or solvent. After 72 h, the stones were analysed for fluorescence (365 nm) and treated with 2-propanol/dimethyl sulfoxide for high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) analysis.

Separate calculation of DW-MRI in assessing therapeutic effect in liver tumors in rats.

Aim: To explore whether the antitumor effect of a vascular disrupting agent (VDA) would be enhanced by combining with an antiangiogenic agent, and whether such synergistic effects can be effectively evaluated with separate calculation of diffusion weighted magnetic resonance imaging (DW-MRI).

Methods: Thirty-seven rats with implanted liver tumors were randomized into the following three groups: (1) ZD6126, a kind of VDA; (2) ZDTHA, ZD6126 in combination with an antiangiogenic, thalidomide; and (3) control. Morphological DW-MRI were performed and quantified before, 4 h and 2 d after treatment.

A single-dose toxicity study on non-radioactive iodinated hypericin for a targeted anticancer therapy in mice.

Aim: Hypericin (Hyp) and its radio-derivatives have been investigated in animal models with ischemic heart diseases and malignancies for diagnostic and therapeutic purposes. Before radioiodinated Hyp ((123)I-Hyp or (131)I-Hyp) can be considered as a clinically useful drug, vigorous evaluations on its chemotoxicity are necessary. In the present study, we examined the toxicity of a single dose of non-radioactive (127)I-Hyp in normal mice for 24 h and 14 d.